A God for Real Life

Good Monday morning, my dearest Siestas! This is the day the Lord has made, Monday though it be! Let's get an extra shot in that Starbucks today so we can have a little extra energy to rejoice and be glad in it!

I caught myself doing something this morning that made me think of my own walk with Christ then yours, my darling fellow-sojourners, because that's the way God has wired me. It was still dark outside and I'd just finished my quiet time on the back porch. Our sanitation guys come early so I knew I'd better get the trash out before I missed them. As I was dragging a large trash can down the driveway and out to the curb with one hand, I held the other hand up in the air while I prayed some Scriptures out loud over my beloved son-in-law. It might have been any one of my closest loved ones but I knew he had a Greek test today and I wanted to spend some extra time on him. Suddenly the Holy Spirit made me aware of the sweet irony of what was happening. There I was, dragging a trash can filled with empty dog-food cans, coffee grounds, crumpled kleenex from blown noses, cardboard toilet tissue tubes, dryer lint, a weekend of Houston Chronicles, all manner of to-go food containers and goodness knows what other unmentionables out to the curb while having a holy moment with the King of all Creation.

And I thought to myself, "Isn't that the way it is?" God's Word and His ways were meant for real living. If we keep saving sacred practices for sacred life-moments, we will never truly see our theology collide with our reality. We may feel a tad better at church and more spiritually in-tune at Bible study but we'll never get the fact that Christ meant to infuse Himself into our relentless carpool lines, traffic jams, elevator rides, grocery store check-outs, expense reports, tank fill-ups, and family fights. If we reserve divine moments for divine situations, we are in for long waits and short visits. I don't know about you but I need Him more than that.

Sometimes we think something is wrong with us because our spiritual lives and disciplines are not glamorous. We frustrate ourselves with the wrong impression that other people's are. We don't realize that right in the middle of their quiet times, sometimes they have to jump up and run to the restroom...or nurse the baby...or yell at a barking dog, "Would you shut that up before you wake up every dad-blasted soul in the neighborhood?"

And, yet, right in the middle of real and un-sacred living, something sacred does happen. Though human eyes are blind to the sight, the cloudy pillar of God's glory really does fall upon us and we, and our trash cans, are enveloped by His Presence. And He is pleased that we got it. That we got Him. And He got us. Right smack dab in the middle of living.

That's what got me thinking. If God is not about dragging our trash to the curb for pick-up, what on earth is He for?

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

You are deeply loved today.